{"id":14081,"date":"2014-07-14T11:01:27","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T19:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14081"},"modified":"2019-10-12T08:45:36","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T16:45:36","slug":"atlantic-city-and-then-there-were-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-and-then-there-were-nine\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City: And then there were nine …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trump_Plaza\"<\/a>Scarcely had Gary Loveman<\/strong> opined that a few\u00a0casinos in Atlantic City<\/strong> needed to close than they began toppling like dominoes — some by his own hand. Headed to the casino graveyard alongside the Atlantic Club<\/strong> and the Showboat<\/strong> is Trump Plaza<\/strong>, whose owners contemplate a mid-September shutdown<\/a>. Unlike the Showboat,\u00a0Trump Plaza<\/strong> has been making negligible revenue for nearly as long as we can recall. Like Showboat and Revel, it hasn’t been able to attract buyers. Worse, it hasn’t been able to attract gamblers. Unlike the Showboat closing, this isn’t a rash and questionable decision but more of a<\/p>\n

mercy killing. It’s not Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong>‘ job to subsidize unprofitable casinos.<\/p>\n

There were predictable reactions. Unite-HERE<\/strong> President Robert McDevitt<\/strong> called for state “action equal to the magnitude of this pending catastrophe.” Minority owner Donald Trump<\/strong>, of course, washed his \"trump_plaza\"<\/a>hands of everything:\u00a0“I let them use my name, but I have nothing to do with it. Atlantic City has suffered for years. Many mistakes were made by government, tremendous mistakes, including no reinvestment in town; they would take casino revenue and put it in places that had nothing to do with Atlantic City. I got out seven years ago; my timing was tremendous.” (The Associated Press<\/strong> disputed the accuracy of Trump’s remarks)<\/span><\/p>\n

In any event, the Plaza’s numbers were wretched<\/a>, grossing $6 million a month last year and down 27% from that this year. One obviously sympathizes with the 1,000+ workers who may soon be out of jobs, but this is the one casino closure that was overdue.<\/p>\n

* That GLPI<\/strong>\/Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong> takeover may have been snuffed out before talks began in earnest. Isle has restructured its management, shedding $2.5 million in salaries<\/a>. CFO Dale Black<\/strong> got the chop and Chief \"ehausler\"<\/a>Strategic Officer Eric Hausler<\/strong>‘s position will be eliminated. Hausler (left<\/em>) replaces Black. The company will also proceed without an executive chairman of the board. With 40% of the company held by the founding Goldstein family, their opinion counts for a lot and Macquarie Securities<\/strong> analyst Chad Beynon<\/strong> thinks GLPI’s offer didn’t impress. Isle still has a ways to go to achieve its goal of $12 million a year in savings but it’s made a big first step.<\/p>\n

* Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s loss has become<\/a> Tropicana’s Entertainment<\/strong>‘s gain.<\/p>\n

* A popular landmark on the Los Angeles<\/strong>-to-Las Vegas<\/strong> drive has been dark for two years. (That’s what happens when you don’t pay your electric bill<\/a>.) But the 134-foot-tall, freestanding thermometer has been brightened up with LED bulbs and a fresh layer or two of\u00a0paint. Our congratulations and gratitude go out to restorer LaRae Harguess<\/strong> and her mother, Barbara Herron<\/strong>, who bankrolled the restoration.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scarcely had Gary Loveman opined that a few\u00a0casinos in Atlantic City needed to close than they began toppling like dominoes — some by his own hand. Headed to the casino graveyard alongside the Atlantic Club and the Showboat is Trump … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,34,42,7,85,35,69,19,21,169,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14081"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25092,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14081\/revisions\/25092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}